


Soft Hands and Gentle Words

by GenderfluidXehanort



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Arranged Marriage, Friends to Lovers, M/M, i guess??, same au as my soriku fic yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 21:59:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16206500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GenderfluidXehanort/pseuds/GenderfluidXehanort
Summary: After an arranged marriage puts Roxas' hopes to find his true love on halt, he tries to make the best of the situation. However his new husband Lea hasn't really been the best spouse over the last month but decides one day to take Roxas out and fix their currently rocky relationship. Romance ensues?





	Soft Hands and Gentle Words

Truth be told, the married life had always appealed to Roxas. His parents had married for love and when he and Sora were still young, they would daydream in childlike wonderment about who their future spouse would be. 

His two eldest brothers never married but still set off to rule their own kingdoms alone. When they had left, Sora and Roxas were both still too young to be wed and they had assumed Sora would be the first. Everyone knew how Sora felt about his knight, except for Riku himself apparently and it was common talk in the kingdom that they would be wed once the prince had turned 18. 

However that wasn't the case. On Sora and Roxas’ 18th birthday, the king and queen had popped the news that Roxas was to be married to a noble from a neighboring kingdom. A noble, not even a prince and Roxas didn't get to meet him until their wedding day. 

Now of course the wedding had been beautiful as it was hosted by two families with tremendous amounts of money, and it wasn't like Roxas’ husband-to-be was unattractive. Everything just felt… empty and meaningless. Years of daydreaming gone to waste and it made Roxas feel awful. 

It had been about a month since the wedding and Roxas hadn't spoken to him once. He was on better terms speaking wise with his sister and she seemed to be the only one who cared about him in the whole manor. It was almost like every member of the house avoided him except for her. 

Xion Béchanet was a sweet girl, reserved but sweet and Roxas was happy to accept her as a sister-in-law quickly. His mother-in-law was nice when she needed to be but often kept to herself as lady of the house. And Lea, his husband was a different story entirely. 

He new next to nothing about the man, save for his name and what he looked like. Roxas hadn't heard his voice save for at the wedding and only saw him during dinner. They didn't even share a bedroom. Living in this place was torture and he felt like a prisoner. 

Roxas mostly stayed in his room and read as his room could have served as a fully stocked library with the amount of books on its shelves. 

And that's what he was doing today as well, reclining on his bed and reading a thick bound book about some sort of ancient war. He was thoroughly engrossed until a knock sounded at his door. Figuring it was a maid he answered. 

“Come in.” He didn't lift his gaze from the text on the page. 

“Roxas, can we talk for a moment?” He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard who spoke. 

Lea stood in his doorway, wild hair tied back in a ribbon, cotton shirt opened to reveal his lean chest and he wore an expression that Roxas couldn't seem to place. 

“Of course… Um, sit where you like?” His mouth felt dry when he saw Lea approach and sit on the edge of his bed. 

Lea ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Well, where to start…” He chuckled dryly and he looked at Roxas with a sad smile. Lea dropped the smile almost immediately and looked down, keeping his gaze away from Roxas. “I know you didn't want this, the marriage. To tell you the truth I didn't want it either but it's not like I had much room to complain… And when they told me how old you were, I should've complained.”

“Wait, Lea how old are you?” Roxas said, sitting up straight, cocking an eyebrow in Lea’s direction. 

“26.” Roxas must have made a noise cause Lea chuckled in response. “Yeah you probably didn't expect to marry someone 8 years your senior, huh?”

“You just… You don't look like you're 26.”

“I'll take that as a compliment.” Lea finally turned his attention upward. “I'm sorry I've been so distant this past month. I mean, some husband I've been… I at least should've tried to make the best of the situation. So I'm gonna start trying now, well, to be your friend at least.”

“Um, thanks… I appreciate that.” Roxas rubbed his arm with his hand. “Where do you want to start?”

“Do you have anything planned today?”

“You know I don't…”

“Great. Then get dressed, we're going out.” Lea stood up and walked to the door of the room. “And I'm going to have all of our things moved to a bigger room. Hope you don't mind.”

“Not at all. Now get out and let me get dressed.” Roxas said, opening the door to his wardrobe. 

“Whatever you wish, darling.” Lea said, smiling as he left, door clicking closed behind him.

Roxas shook his head and began to pick out clothes for the day and dismissed the odd feeling in his stomach as hunger. He hadn't eaten breakfast yet after all. 

~~~~~

Roxas had decided to dress on the more casual side of things for this outing. A simple high-necked vest, tight pants and heeled boots was his choice of attire for the day. It wasn't like he could judge based on where they were going, Lea still hadn't disclosed that information to him. So Roxas just rolled with the punches. 

When he descended the large staircase to the manor foyer, he was greeted with Lea leaning heavily on the railing. He glanced up at the sound of footsteps and smiled at Roxas, who didn't return the expression. Lea held out a hand and smirked. 

“My you look ravishing, darling. I could spend all day looking at you if I had the time.”

Roxas rolled his eyes and scoffed but still took the hand offered to him. “Where are we going anyways? It doesn't look like you dressed up for any sort of occasion.”

“Right you are.” Lea was wearing the exact same thing as earlier when he was in Roxas’ room, wild hair and all. “We're going on a carriage ride.”

“So I'm to he stuck in a small space with you for an unknown amount of time? That sounds fantastic.” Roxas said snidely as he and Lea left the manor for the large carriage parked just outside. 

Lea dramatically threw a hand over his chest, clenching at his shirt fabric. “My dear, you wound me. You don't really dislike me that much do you?”

Roxas turned his head so Lea wouldn't see his small smile and climbed into the carriage when the door was opened. Lea followed suit and sat on the seat opposite. Roxas was silently thankful. 

When they started to move, Roxas leaned his head on his hand and looked out the window, watching the stone paved entryway pass, greeted by unfamiliar streets when they went on longer. 

The ride itself was mostly silent, the occasional question to start conversation coming from either side. Throughout the ride Roxas learned that Lea’s favorite color was red, he was mildly skilled in elemental magic (specifically fire), could speak 4 languages and could play violin. He also apparently had a large circle of friends but refused to disclose more than that. 

Roxas didn't push for more information. Lea said he would explain more later. 

~~~~~

The carriage ride lasted about 2 hours and part way through Roxas had drifted off for what he guessed was about a half hour because when he woke they were already at the location. 

Roxas felt a soft hand run through his hair and a gentle voice telling him to wake up. He stretched and rubbed his eyes sleepily, now noticing that he wasn't in the position he fell asleep in, his back not against the carriage seat and his head resting against Lea’s lap. He shot up, face red and he looked at Lea, scowling. 

“When did you-!?”

“Master Lea, Master Roxas, we're here.” The carriage doors were opened by the driver and Lea smiled at him. 

“Thank you so much.” He got up and turned to Roxas, extending a hand. “Shall we?”

Face still burning, Roxas accepted his hand and exited the carriage. “Thank you…”

Lea kept his hand entwined with Roxas’ as he led him through what looked like a massive garden. The arched entrance was covered by morning glories that looked to have been trained carefully over the metal.

Roxas looked in awe at just the sheer amount of flowers in the garden, carefully arranged and planted in a way that complimented the shape of the garden itself. He turned his head and noticed a large tree in the center of the garden with what looked like a wicker picnic basket beneath it. Roxas looked up at Lea. 

“Did you really take me out for a picnic?”

“Is something the matter? It's a quiet place for us to talk and we can eat. And the setting is so romantic, isn't it?” Lea waggled his eyebrows down at Roxas, who rolled his eyes back. 

“Don’t expect anything from me in return for this.” He said snidely as he sat down on the blanket, watching Lea drop down beside him.

“I’m not the kinda guy to do that. I’m a gentleman, see.” He pulled back the top of the basket and produced a small bouquet of flowers, holding them out for Roxas to take. “I got this for you.”

Roxas gasped and gingerly took it into his hands. “Lea this is beautiful… And it’s even-”

“Camellia flowers, your favorite.” Lea scooted closer and pointed at one of the deep red flowers in the bunch. “And peonies, my favorite. They were the flowers at our wedding, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember thinking how the flowers matched your hair.” Roxas smiled up at him, holding the flowers tight to his chest. “I never thought this color of red would look good on me…” Roxas plucked one of the peonies out and placed it in his hair, doing the same with a camellia for Lea. “Pink looks good on you.”

“Why thank you.” Lea wasn’t sure what to do at the moment but his stomach was tied in knots, he fumbled over his words. “Are, um, are you hungry?”

“Starving.”

“Great! I made us food.” Lea pulled small plates and a covered platter.

“You can cook? Looks like I struck gold.” Roxas said, smirking, laying back against the blanket.

“Don’t get too excited.” Lea took the cover off and shrugged. “They’re just sandwiches.”

~~~~~

After eating their fill, Lea and Roxas decided to just lay in silence. Roxas usually relished the silence, due to growing up with three older brothers but now there were just too many questions he wanted to ask. So he spoke up. 

“Since obviously you aren't going to bring it up on your own, I will. Tell me about those friends of yours. You said you would tell me later and it's later.”

Lea sighed and rolled over so he was facing Roxas. “Fine. They're all children of nobles my parents are in council with. We all made this dumb club when we were kids where, honestly, we didn't really do anything. But they haven't spoken to me in over a month.”

“Why? It all seems like you were fairly close.” Roxas turned to face Lea, lips pouting in confusion.

“See, this is the part I didn't want to talk about.”

“You don't have to tell me if you don't want.”

“No, I will.” Lea chewed on his bottom lip. “Just don't get upset with me.”

“Just tell me, dummy. Unless you killed someone I won't be upset with you.” Roxas said. “Go on.”

“There was a guy in our group, his name was Isa. I was closest with him, we did everything together. I… I was going to propose to him but…”

“But I happened…” Roxas turned away from Lea and put his hands over his face. “All of this is my fault isn't it?”

“No, it's not. Isa made it out to be your fault and said I should just call off the wedding so I could be with him. I couldn't tell my parents no, especially when it was a prince they were going to have me marry.”

“You're still making it sound like it's my fault.”

“It's not just listen. Isa told the rest of out group that I was unfaithful and that I had been with you behind his back the whole time. They believed him and when I tried to tell them it had been arranged by my parents they wouldn't listen.” Lea pulled Roxas’ hands away from his face. “What I took away from this was that if he had claimed to love me, but then turned his back that fast when this situation arose…” Lea smiled and kissed Roxas’ palms. “Then I'm truly happy I married you.”

Roxas could feel his face heat up and turn red. Lea leaned down and kissed the now extremely visible patches of freckles on his cheeks. 

“I guess… I guess you're not as bad as I originally thought as well…” Roxas mumbled out, lacing his fingers with Lea’s. 

“Eh, I'll take it.” Lea smiles brightly and pressed his lips gently to Roxas’ beneath him. “Let's head home, hm? I'm sure our room is done being furnished now.”

Roxas just nodded, sitting up once Lea had moved away to pack away the things from the picnic. 

He still clutched the bouquet to his chest tightly when they made their way out of the garden to the carriage. 

He didn't protest when Lea sat next to him and drew him down to rest his head against his lap. 

And he didn't protest when he was woken by a soft hand in his hair and gentle words in his ear.

**Author's Note:**

> So for the flowers I used, the camellia means my destiny is in your hands and the red peony specifically though the meaning is still the same, prosperity and a happy marriage. Theyre also really pretty too.


End file.
